Brother Cadfael is challenged to uncover the truth of the murder and help bring right endings to all parties, in both Wales and in the Abbey.

When they return, Columbanus says Saint Winifred appeared to him, saying that her grave at Gwytherin was neglected; she wished to lie somewhere more accessible to pilgrims.

Robert, Sub-Prior Richard, Jerome and Columbanus are joined by Cadfael (a Welshman, as interpreter) and John (for menial work).

When the monks reach Gwytherin (on the Cledwen River), the local priest, Father Huw, objects to Winifred's remains being removed without approval by the free men of the parish.

While John helps the servants (and Jerome and Columbanus keep vigil at Winifred's chapel), Robert, Richard, Cadfael and Huw await Rhisiart; he does not appear.

Cadfael realises that Engelard's arrow did not kill Rhisiart: his back is damp from rain-soaked grass and earth, while his front is dry.

The locals see Rhisiart's death as an omen, and agree to Winifred's removal; Robert plans to exhume her remains after a three-night vigil.

Cadfael hopes the superstition that a corpse will bleed if touched by the murderer will force a confession, and at his suggestion Sioned asks that after each night's prayer those keeping watch place their hands on Rhisiart's heart.

Before the monks depart, Columbanus offers to keep vigil and drowses; a vision of a veiled young woman wakes him, identifying herself as St. Winifred and demanding to know why he murdered Rhisiart.

However, the "vision" comes too close, and touching her veil Columbanus realises the saint is a disguised Sioned and slashes at her with a knife before fleeing.

As the monks leave with their "prize", the villagers gather on a hillside to bid them farewell, and Cadfael sees John hiding among them.

Brother Columbanus's spiritual visions are invented to further his worldly ambition "to be the youngest head under a bishop's mitre" and his unexpected disappearance is explained as a blessed translation into grace by the Prior.

[3] All of the characters in the monastery itself (abbot, prior, monks with specific jobs like the precentor or infirmarer) are introduced by name, if not by personality, in this first book of the series.

[8] On the strength of Winifred's relics, Shrewsbury Abbey became second as a place of pilgrimage only to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral.

It is useful to Cadfael throughout the series of books, for dulling pain and calming those in distress, and to other characters for stupefying guards, witnesses and rivals.

Foreigners (alltudau, or exiles) such as Engelard, with no place in the community guaranteed by family ties, may enter a form of indentured servitude.

"In the third week of May they came to Bangor"[15] and then "They ran the prince to earth at Aber"[15] who provided them a guide to Gwytherin, travelling "from the Conway valley at Llanrwst, climbing away from the river into forested hill country.

Bened the smith from Gwytherin stopped in Shrewsbury on his pilgrimage to Walsingham, a long journey to the east side of Britain, about 250 miles one way on modern roads.

[18] Kirkus Reviews, only moderately impressed with the story, observed: "Brother C. traps and dispatches the loony killer (disposing of the body with great wit), matches the daughter up with the right swain, and encourages a restless monk to drop out and enjoy the flesh.

[25] A Morbid Taste for Bones was the seventh Cadfael book to be adapted for television, very much out of sequence, by Carlton Media for distribution worldwide.

The episode starred Derek Jacobi as Brother Cadfael, Michael Culver as Prior Robert, and Anna Friel as Sioned.

The tension between the Welsh villagers and the English monastics is played up considerably, and the acquisition of Saint Winifred is made more dangerous thereby.

Bened the smith, while retaining his name, also loses much of his openhearted good nature, being both a suspicious rival of Rhisiart's and a vehement accuser of the monks themselves.

He innocently denies any ambition on his own part to be "the youngest head under a mitre," and his actions appear to stem from religious fervor and criminal insanity, rather than from a cold, calculated pass at fame.

Otherwise, the episode remains primarily faithful to the text, with the necessary exception of being well into Abbot Radulfus' tenure at the abbey, instead of introducing the series.

The "Cadfael" series eventually extended to thirteen episodes, all of which starred Sir Derek Jacobi as the sleuthing monk.